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Obama's foreign-policy misses

Not many outside of Washington are aware the Obama administration has
dispatched close to 100 “military advisers” (read: mostly CIA) to the
far reaches of East Africa to combat a menace in the Uganda/Democratic
Republic of Congo regions knows as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

The group has been around for decades, terrorizing that part of the
continent and taking no prisoners. They brutally murder, maim and wreak
havoc where and when they want.

I agree we should probably have our troops over there. Heck, they
should’ve gone sooner, if what the White House says about the LRA’s
activities has only worsened.

What I’m worried about is what the president chooses to call military
campaigns such as this. If I’m not mistaken, the White House exercised
its authority and sent military troops not for humanitarian reasons or
to protect American interests and people. No, the president said this
was clearly in the name of the national interests of the United States.
In effect, he was saying this band of mercenaries represented a clear
and present danger to the security interests of our nation. That’s a bit
of a stretch, even for a military hawk such as myself.

I’m disturbed by this specific action, because we didn’t really declare such a thing in Libya, right? For weeks, the White House said they felt NATO should have been in Libya to protect human rights. Why the weak stance in a country that was clearly in need of a regime change? By the way, “regime change” and U.S. interests is another story for another time …

Forget Libya at the moment, and even the LRA. There are now two countries that demand closer scrutiny by our intelligence and foreign policy experts: Syria and Iran.

These nations rest on unstable leaders: those who wake up every day and dream of a world empty of American “hegemony.” These two nations should be the subject of American security interests.

It’s time this president and this administration name the enemy and make every effort to understand the enemy. Then and only then can we soberly appreciate what military strength and resources we need to bring to bear against them. For too long, rogue organizations and movements have turned their own twisted theology into an ideology that is then positioned militarily to do harm against the U.S. and its citizens.

Now is the time to take a stronger stance on those who would seek to harm America and her allies. For me, that begins with a hard look at Syria and Iran.